Who else is watching this camp-fest on TCM right now?

I'll admit I'm conflicted about the horribly homophobic plot vs the fabulous, over the top performances.

by Anonymous

reply 27

August 12, 2018 9:28 PM

It really is gruesomely homophobic, isn't it? I was in the play once. Played the useless brother.

by Anonymous

reply 1

August 5, 2018 8:35 PM

Holy crapola this movie is bananas. All the subtleties right out there is the open, just like the gay roomies in Hitchcock's 'Rope'

by Anonymous

reply 2

August 5, 2018 8:47 PM

Let us not forget our girl, Kate Hepburn, being so appalled with Joseph Mankiewicz's treatment of Monty Clift, that she spat in his face when she was done shooting.

Gore Vidal's screenplay is a lot better than Williams' original text, though.

I would pay no small amount of money to see a revival with Jessica Lange as Mrs. Venable.

by Anonymous

reply 3

August 5, 2018 8:48 PM

Funniest part of this movie is the very end when Foxhill, Vie's private secretary realized that Vie has lost her GD mind and runs sobbing off screen - funny to me, at least. The movie is rather boring, actually.

by Anonymous

reply 4

August 5, 2018 9:39 PM

How did Hepburn and Taylor both got Oscar nominations for this?

by Anonymous

reply 5

August 5, 2018 10:02 PM

Tennessee Williams at his alcoholic worst.

by Anonymous

reply 6

August 5, 2018 10:04 PM

r4, I LOVED when, at the beginning of the movie, Foxhill got such obvious glee from being told she could feed the Venus Flytrap!

by Anonymous

reply 7

August 5, 2018 10:06 PM

John Waters definitely cribbed from this one for [italic]Pink Flamingos.[/italic]

by Anonymous

reply 8

August 5, 2018 10:08 PM

I'd rather see a good film based on a Harry Crews novel.

by Anonymous

reply 9

August 5, 2018 10:08 PM

It's amazing that so much gay talent contributed into this movie, yet so much homophobia is present in it also.

by Anonymous

reply 10

August 5, 2018 10:12 PM

It's one of those movies that's yummy for all the wrong reasons. Over-the-top acting in a macabre, black and white melodrama- interspersed with catty humor.

I can't believe it even got made. Perhaps once the mega-talent signed-on...

I don't think of old movies as homophobic if they dared to broach the subject at all. It was a 'start'.

Here Gore Vidal talks about his screenplay struggles.

Offsite Link

by Anonymous

reply 11

August 5, 2018 10:13 PM

Is it really that homophobic? Williams was gay (as everyone knows) as were so many of his closest and most influential friends, and he usually didn’t present gays in a “negative light” in most of his plays.

I thought the issue with the Sebastian character was specifically that he was going after underage boys in a desperately poor town and it ended up biting him in the ass (literally)—not that he was gay.

by Anonymous

reply 12

August 5, 2018 10:28 PM

CLOSETPHOBIC not homophobic!

by Anonymous

reply 13

August 5, 2018 10:36 PM

Here's a behind the scenes shot of Mankiewicz & Liz. Apparently directing movies stressed him out so much he developed some sort of skin condition on his fingers (or did he bite them) he had to wear white cotton gloves on set.

Offsite Link

by Anonymous

reply 14

August 5, 2018 10:47 PM

I remember seeing this movie as a teenager, way back when. Even then, I knew it was over-the-top, but I loved it anway.

"They DE_VOOOOOOOOO-RRRRRRRR-EEEDDDDD him!"

by Anonymous

reply 15

August 5, 2018 10:52 PM

I've always liked this behind the scenes pic of Liz & Monty in their trailers. Note Monty's giant thermos which, irrc, we can assume was full of vodka and grapefruit juice.

Offsite Link

by Anonymous

reply 16

August 5, 2018 10:53 PM

“A sky full of devouring birds!” I love this movie for its non-stop over the top everything.

by Anonymous

reply 18

August 5, 2018 10:57 PM

Best DL discussion about a film in a long time. Attached for your reading pleasure is the thread from this past spring, "Suddenly Last Summer":

Offsite Link

by Anonymous

reply 19

August 5, 2018 11:01 PM

It captures Liz at her most beautiful.

Offsite Link

by Anonymous

reply 22

August 11, 2018 11:39 PM

It's partly *about* homophobia—including Sebastian's internalized self-loathing that led him to prey on the boys on the beach—but I don't think the film itself is homophobic.

by Anonymous

reply 23

August 12, 2018 12:09 AM

This movie is such a pile of excrement. I feel so bad for Katherine Hepburn appearing in such drivel. Everyone is so bad in it, especially Elizabeth Taylor.

I agree that the movie isn't homophobic; it's just a shitty exploitation movie and it did what exploitation movies do and that's rely on taboo subjects to shock and tittilate middle class audiences. In its case, the taboo subjects were mental illness, incest, homosexuality and cannibalism.

by Anonymous

reply 24

August 12, 2018 12:19 AM

It's true, R23; the ultimate villain of the film is Sebastian's mother, who denies that he had any sexual desires at all. The film is more a celebration of a certain kind of gay sensibility (the outrageous subject matter, the glorification of overacting divas) than it is homophobic.

by Anonymous

reply 25

August 12, 2018 12:33 AM

On top of the theatrics, Liz has her brilliant subtle moments in the movie too. The complicated survivor smile she gave Monty at the ending was everything.

by Anonymous

reply 26

August 12, 2018 9:23 PM

Taylor's monologue at the end was perfection

by Anonymous

reply 27

August 12, 2018 9:28 PM